The White House is intensifying negotiations with House Republicans — including dispatching Vice President Joe Biden as an emergency emissary — but congressional Democrats increasingly fear that it may be too little, too late to avert a government shutdown.

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VIDEO: Boehner, Cantor on budget

POLITICO 44

“Right now, they look a bit dismal,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said when asked about the prospects of keeping the government running beyond the April 8 deadline.

Across Capitol Hill, expectations grew Tuesday that — given the procedural and political obstacles ahead — the parties will fail to reach an agreement, which would prompt a massive government disruption in just a matter of days.

And while both sides are already engaged in a sort of blame game in advance of a potential shutdown, they are also bracing for the political blowback.

Republicans are nervous about appearing intransigent under a barrage of Democratic attacks contending the GOP’s tea party wing is making “extreme” demands that will lead to a shutdown. Democrats, meanwhile, are worried about their own culpability — and they’re concerned that President Barack Obama remains publicly disengaged from the budget negotiations.

“The president has got to take out his veto pen and say, ‘Below this, I will not go, and I will veto it,’” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), whose 26-year career spans the budget battles during the Clinton administration. “He’s got to really dig his heels [in] on some things, and he’s got to come out more forcefully for revenues. He’s got to come out for revenues.”

Without an accord, the federal government could suffer its first shutdown in 15 years — and it couldn’t come at a worse time, with a still-struggling economy, exploding national debt and three high-stakes military operations in the Arab world.

Dianne Feinstein was a junior Democratic senator from California when the last shutdown occurred — and she said it’s “hard [for Obama] to be as involved” as President Bill Clinton was then, given the wars abroad.

But she added: “Would it be helpful if he could? Yes. ... It takes clout to push toward a compromise, and nobody has the clout that the president has.”

There’s an added risk for the White House in pushing too much for compromise: If Obama gets involved and makes a deal with the GOP on billions in cuts, there will be blowback from the liberal base.

“You have to rely on both parties — so, therefore, you may get a large number of your caucus opposing this resolution at the end of the day,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “You’ve got to be prepared for that. ... That, to me, that’s what leadership is about.”

Behind the scenes, the White House insists that it is deeply involved in day-to-day negotiations — even if the president isn’t talking about it publicly.

The White House has significantly intensified its efforts to hammer out an agreement with House Republicans since last week’s congressional recess, people with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO, with White House chief of staff Bill Daley and legislative affairs director Rob Nabors in constant contact with House Speaker John Boehner’s chief of staff, Barry Jackson.

The two sides were making headway on a package of new budget cuts Monday when talks hit a major snag — prompting Biden to intervene in the form of a soothing phone call to Boehner, with whom he enjoys a loose, bantering relationship, according to two people familiar with the exchange.

Well folks if you can't gain political power from your "performance" then you use other means..............nobody does it better then the Dems.........and no one "enables" them more than our dirty dishonest liberal/progressive MSM wolfpack press......

Is there any one in Washington capable of providing leadership or at least Adult Supervision?

I hope some day soon the mainstream media will have the courage to support traditional tax paying Americans that are tired of watching politicians spend money we do not have.. Listen up journalists... You may not get invited to White House parties but you will feel good about yourselves if you begin to report about the continued wasteful spending going on in this country..

Is there any one in Washington capable of providing leadership or at least Adult Supervision?

I hope some day soon the mainstream media will have the courage to support traditional tax paying Americans that are tired of watching politicians spend money we do not have.. Listen up journalists... You may not get invited to White House parties but you will feel good about yourselves if you begin to report about the continued wasteful spending going on in this country..

As Howard Dean says, Democrats would win this like they did the last time. Why? Because, despite all the hoopla about the power of Fox, the media is in their camp. Their tool? Ridicule. Manipulation. Deceit. But not necessarily in that order. Recently there was an article about unpaid traffic tickets of Members of Congress. Not one Republican was named. Not one. However, there was no big story about this jewel that paints one party as corrupt. In Travelgate, the media relentlessly dogged the story about the travel expenses of Republicans on the taxpayer dime. In response, the Republican leadership revealed expenditures by Democrats. They were literally twice as guilty. Story dropped. Investigative reporting is unleashed on Republicans alone. And that's why Democrats park wherever the heck they want to, like Rep. Weiner does. That is also why a President with two names, Soetero and Obama, who can't seem to name the hospital he was born at, can lock up the torn, tattered, faded original of his birth certificate that might answer that basic question. After all, he wasn't born at home in the 1800's. A press that ridicules rather than answers plays the fool. But, we are laughing at you.

Let's face it the policies of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have left us with no wiggle room in this budget mess........we are going to have to suffer some painful budget cuts due to excess spending and the whole stimulus mess......bailing out rich Wall Street investors and bankers and then having them use the money to pad their own back pockets with giving out huge year end bonuses over the past couple of years. Runaway spending in Iraq and Afghanisthan and now Libya......and I will allow George W. Bush and his henchmen some of the blame also as that is where it all started and Obama just escalated the whole process. The federal government has overstepped it's boundaries and what it is suppose to do according to the Constitution and our Founding Fathers. Liberalism and socialist tendancies are way out of control........we are raising generations of people who subsist through government handouts! Public sector employee unions have made this worse also as their pension plans are funded by our tax dollars and are hugeloy more lucarative than the private sector! Time for some real soul searching folks.............and it is going to be extremely painful. The blame goes primarily to Obama and the Demos and some to G.W. Bush and his people!! Thanks to you two guys many Americans will never see retirement or the fulfillment of the American dream!!

The Democrats had ten months to avoid a "shut down". It was called the 111th Congress and they had ammanding majorities in both Houses. President Obama submitted his FY 2011 budget in February 2010. Not 2011. 2010. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid didn't think his budget worth a hearing.

So, my broken record litany. How many agencies, commissions, committees ad nauseam exist in the Federal government? What does each do? Is it absolutely necessary that the Federal government do this? How much does each cost? Does anybody know? Or care?

A "shut down" will only affect non-essential agencies. Non-essential? A good place to start. Eliminate the non-essential. More cuts will probably be needed, but they will be smaller. And everything has to be on the table.

Senator Schumer, how extreme is it to simply dump the President's budget without even a hearing?

Democrats "fear" governmental shut down? Who are you trying to kid. They are engineering it thinking that they can gain political advantage. They are making no effort to make any meaningful cuts; they are doing the opposite. Adding to the spending side of the equation, while blaming republicans. Typical democrat tactics -- say one thing, do the opposite.

The operative words of President Obama are: "Let's wait and see how this plays out." He said this when asked to comment on the "race issue" after Hillary Clinton apparently credited Lyndon Johnson for passing the Civil Rights legislation. He could have put the issue to rest at that point, because he knew the Clintons are not racist, but he didn't, he wanted to wait.

That is what he did in the health care legislation, that is what he has done in job creation, that is what he did with extending unemployment benefits (giving the rich huge tax cuts), that is what he did in Libya, and now he is doing it with the budget.

This President is not a leader. He has no stand until he is forced. He always wants to see how he can get a political advantage for himself. He is dysfunctional. He should not be President.

If the Speaker doesn't show a little spine he will be replaced. We're broke and he knows it. The people know it. Even the Democrats know it. If my choice is between a future for my children and keeping John Boehner as Speaker, the choice is very easy to make. Good bye, John. Have a good life.

John Boehner is like the kid who wets his bed and tells his mom he will never ever do it again... but keeps doing it.

John Boehner's Greatest Accomplishment: Getting "Rick" Rolled by the Tea Baggers and Shutting Down the Government... OUCH !

Boehner: "I wish I was as strong and decisive as you Madame Speaker... I mean Nancy. This would have never happened if you were still in charge. !" Pelosi: "I know... I'm just that good. Now stop crying and grow a pair."

Politico, why aren't you including the information that Schumer -- on a conference call with reporters but he (oops!) didn't know they were already on the line, listening -- gave fellow senators instructions about what to say. He said, always paint the GOP as "extremists." Those were his instructions from the Dem caucus.

Puts kind of a different spin on Democratics' position, wouldn't you say? It would be nice if you'd include that kind of info, for a more complete picture of the situation. I know that goes against your bias, but you proport to be a NEWS organization.

no one can look at that and say with a straight face that massive spending cuts are not needed.....

If i spent money like the federal governenment I would have been bankrupt and in jail long ago. It is amazing that we are leaving future generations of Americans with such a huge burden, should be a crime......

Just think of the opportunity cost associated with just paying intrest on the debt, what else could we spend those billions on....... infastructure, education, energy research, ect........ instead we throw it all away because we are addicted to spending..............

As Howard Dean says, Democrats would win this like they did the last time. Why? Because, despite all the hoopla about the power of Fox, the media is in their camp. Their tool? Ridicule. Manipulation. Deceit. But not necessarily in that order. Recently there was an article about unpaid traffic tickets of Members of Congress. Not one Republican was named.

Keep counting those chickens before they hatch. The mainstream media will be quick to side with the democrats and blame the republicans but the alternate forms of media will get the word out that the only reason we are even facing a shutdown is the fact that the democrats who were in control of the budget never passed a 2010/2011 budget. The democrats had an overwhelming majority in the House, almost a fillibuster-proof majority in the Senate and Obama resides in the White House. The democrats could have easily passed any budget they wanted last year and the republicans would have been incapable of stopping them. The democrats knew that they didn't want to defend their deficit spending during an election year so they took the extreme position that they would risk a future government shutdown just to avoid having to defend their fiscal practices.

Thank you for mentioning "ridicule, manipulation and deceit". There has been a lot of that in the news lately. The latest example of ridicule, manipulation and deceit comes from the extreme Senate democrats. Good ole Chuck Schummer didn't realize that some members of the press were listening when he was passing out his talking points to his fellow Senators. It was quite illustrating to hear Chuck instructing his partners in crime on the proper methods of propogandizing a potential government shutdown

Thank you also for mentioning parking tickets because it affords me another opportunity to mention something that was ignored by the mainstream media. Remember that Obama instantly jumped on the Cambridge police after his racist professor buddy acted like an azz. Obama may have been quick to attack the police because of his private vendetta against them. It seems that Obama had 17 unpaid parking tickets that he received more than a decade ago when he was at Harvard. Obama had to pay those parking tickets a couple weeks before he announced that he was running for president.

The radical boy king professor, attorney and community organizer couldn't even pay for his freaking parking tickets. Between his cocaine use and his failure to pay decade old parking tickets its easy to see that Obama believes he is above the law. Maybe Obama thought that the parking tickets would be taken care of in some affirmative action program similar to the affirmative actions program that may have assisted him in becoming a member of the Harvard Law Review (school newspaper that accepted substandard students based on affirmative action programs).

Howard Dean and Chuck Schumer made it very clear that the Dems want a shutdown - desperately and have devised a strategy for blaming it on the Repubs. When will the Dems stop being such loud mouthed lying thugs???? Not all Dems to be sure...but the few that are are very loud and arrogant about it..I'm an Independent and wish the Dems would get rid of the likes of Schumer and pelosi and Reid...send them to a retirement home or a loony bin...but get them out before they destroy the Dem. Party altogether...!!! Charly Rangel and Barney Frank are two more who should be sent away as well as Maxine Waters and Barbara Boxer...they bring shame and disgrace to a once honorable party.

The Dems are scared to death. They are anxiously trying to cause a confrontation and then to blame it on Republicans. Their effort is to blame Boehner first, and the President second. It won't work. Sne Schumer erred when he revealed his strategy on a conference call with reporters where he told how he was orchestrating a vast left-wing conspiracy to brand the TEA-Party as a "divisive" force and that the cuts were "extremist". And he also tipped his hand that the Dems were engineering a government shutdown that they thought would hurt Republicans more than Dems.

This is the rawest form of confrontation politics. The Dems are trying to "soften the battlefield" for the 2012 budget and then election. The problem is that it won't work. The Dems are trying to repeat history. It won't work. The Dems will take the heat this time. They will get the blame.

This is an important issue. The Libya invasion is historic, but this is more so! The Dems are really betting the farm on this shutdown, and it will devastate them in 2012. It is a mystery why they can't see it! It is soi obvious! They are betting too heavily on media support, but it won't work this time!